The Longest Five Minutes may falter in the lack of difficulty that it poses the player with, but the game will upend your expectation in how absorbed you will become in the story that it unravels.

The Longest Five Minutes uses a truly gripping concept, throwing the classic RPG formula on its head by having you put the pieces of an already existing story together as you go. While the combat and general gameplay are almost too easy-going, the story, characters, and overall aesthetic had us always wanting more, never wanting to put the game down. The asking price is perhaps a little steep for the amount of content available, and the strange take on a usually well-understood genre may throw some players off, but there is an indescribable charm that is worth exploring here.

Calling The Longest Five Minutes a deconstruction of 8- and 16-bit RPG tropes is only half-true, as it turns around and reconstructs those same tropes by journey's end. Still, it's a brisk and amusing adventure that knows how to play to its strengths.

The Longest Five Minutes certainly has some good, and surprisingly original ideas, but it just never takes them far enough to be something really special.

The Longest Five Minutes does well with its unique premise, but falls short in providing a fun gameplay experience. Most of the gameplay is a waste of time and only serves as an obstacle to experiencing the story. Flash Back's adventure is only worth it for the good art and final revelation.

Quotation forthcoming.

Unfortunately for all the minor smiles and well-orchestrated music that accompanies one’s travels, The Longest Five Minutes feels mostly like a sterile assembly of classic JRPG’s least-appealing necessities. Its premise of losing one’s memory and the relation that has between past and present occurrences could have been an interesting twist on RPG mechanics to uncover, but it ends up being little more than a stale alternative to what is a rather unaltered series of common JRPG affairs. The Longest Five Minutes heralds some pleasantries and quirky moments of respite at points, but with a near-offensively easy combat system, brief dungeons and a lacking overworld to trudge through, competently made it may be, The Longest Five Minutes sadly ends taking up a much shorter breadth of your attention.